Barcelona Summary History

Barcelona Context

Founded as a Roman town around 15 BC, Barcelona survived the collapse of the empire and following barbarian invasions due to its massive Roman walls. As the moors pushed north through Spain (800s) toward northern Europe, the Franks held this area as a "buffer" (the Spanish March) between Christian Europe and Muslim Spain and the French influence was a major factor in setting Barcelona and Catalonia apart from the rest of Christian Spain in language and culture. Even today people of this region consider themselves Catalans, not Spanish. During the medieval period Barcelona enjoyed a golden age of prosperity as the hub of a trading empire. Catalan culture had spread across the Mediterranean at one time. While Barcelona has been the heart of Catalunya since the 11th century, the Catalan culture and language spread across a unified trio of kingdoms known as the Crown of Aragon, circa1137. In the 15th century, the Crown of Aragon included northern Spain, Southern France, Italy, Sardinia and a small portion of Greece. This influence gradually diminished as rival Madrid centralized the Spanish kingdoms as a unified country, limiting Catalan independence and suppressing the unique culture and language, culminating in the Nueva Planta Decrees of 1716. Modern Catalunya defiantly celebrates this defeat in a festival called La Diada, each September 11. Periodic repression (sometimes brutally) of Catalan language and culture occurred numerous times in the 18^th - 20^th c. including under the Fascist Franco regime from the 1930s to the 1970s, explaining why Catalans are often sensitive about their relationship with Spain. While most residents are very tourist friendly, some Catalans might be offended if you assume they are Spanish or speak Spanish. Please be sensitive to this issue when interacting with residents.

In the 18^th & 19^th c. Barcelona embraced industrialization and began to evolve as perhaps Spain's most modern city. Removing the walls in the mid-1800s allowed the town to grow in a planned grid with major diagonal avenues, an expansion known as the "Eixample". There was a brief period in the 19^th c. of Catalan rebirth or renaissance known as "Renaixenca", a term you may encounter referring generally to the restoration of Catalan language and culture.

Barcelona Architecture

The Barri Gotic (Gothic District) around the historic cathedral contains the oldest urban fabric from inside the city walls with Gothic era constructions and Roman wall fragments. Oddly, as opposed to Vicenza, there is very little Renaissance architecture in Barcelona because in that era building was limited to the old core area inside the walls and very little was built. In the late 19^th and early 20^th c. during the post-wall "Eixample" expansion the city enjoyed industrial/commercial wealth, the grid expansion provided development opportunities and building was prolific. " Modernisme" is the term for the flamboyant architecture that evolved in the new Eixample grid. Architectural historians usually associate this architecture of fluid lines, naturalistic forms and exuberant decorative ornament with Art Nouveau and the Arts & Crafts Movement in Europe. In Barcelona this creative exploration of Catalan gothic and Moorish traditions were part of the Catalan Renaixenca or renaissance movement, appearing first at the 1881 Barcelona Universal Exposition and lasting until about the time of the 1929 Barcelona International Exposition made famous by Mies van der Rohe's modern German Pavilion. Gaudi, Barcelona's most famous architect, did not consider himself a "modernista", but his work is associated by most historians with Modernisme.

The development of the Eixample grid is considered an extraordinary example of modern city planning from the 19^th c. Starting in the 1980s after the Franco era of Catalan repression gave way to the acceptance in Spain of a semi-autonomous Catalan region, the city embarked on an ambitious program of urban regeneration and cutting edge new modern architecture drawing some of the most recognized architects from around the world. As it had earlier with the world expositions of 1888 and 1929, Barcelona used the 1992 Olympic Games as an opportunity to reshape the city's urban fabric and serve as a catalyst for new development. In 1999 the Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) awarded its gold medal to Barcelona for their commitment to quality design and effective planning, the only non-architect to ever receive the award.